Prime minister announces he is not to run for a third term

Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero said Sunday that his decision not to run for reelection on the Socialist ticket next year will now force the Popular Party "to get to work" to come up with solutions, because the main opposition officials will no longer be able to attack him.

One day after Zapatero, 50, announced that he will not become his party's candidate for the general elections, the prime minister set about on the campaign trail for the Socialist contenders in the upcoming regional and local races, to be held on May 22. Appearing before 5,000 people at a rally in Murcia, Zapatero was greeted by a standing ovation and shouts and cheers from supporters.

"The PP is going to benefit from the decision I announced yesterday and I am happy. Now they are going to have to come up with a platform, because all they have concentrated on is attacking me, saying that everything was Zapatero's fault," he said.

On Saturday, Zapatero put to rest all speculation about his political future when he explained to members of the Socialist Party's federal committee that when he was first elected prime minister in 2004, he always believed that "two terms was a reasonable period in which to lead the country's destiny."

Looking weary, the embattled prime minister, who has been struggling to deal with a floundering economy, runaway unemployment and concerns in Brussels that Spain could need a bailout, denied that his decision had anything to do with the economic crisis or with the grim fact that more than four million people remain jobless.

"What was a conviction turned into personal determination," he said on Saturday. "A firm decision that I am going to announce today: I am not going to be the candidate in the next general elections."

Many top party leaders had been urging Zapatero to make the announcement before the May 22 race.

The Socialists are due to hold primaries later this year to select a new secretary general, who will become the party's candidate next year to run against PP leader Mariano Rajoy. The latest Metroscopia poll prepared for EL PAÍS shows that the PP is 15.8 points ahead of the Socialists.